NEWS ITEMS OF LONG AGO Many important events are recorded in the newspapers of long ago occurring the third week of May…Wm. D. Kelly opened the Exchange Bank on Second Street near the railway track on May 19, 1855…The bank was for the purpose of exchanging money between Ironton, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh…Most of the pig iron made in Lawrence County was shipped to Cincinnati or Pittsburgh via boat…The purchasers in those cities sent the gold to close the deal to the bank in Ironton, just as the Federal Reserve Banks send money to the city today via Brinks truck, but the money then traveled on the passenger steamboats…The Kelly Bank was consolidated with the First National in 1863.
On May 20, 1876, John Hayes became the first fire chief of the city…Before that, each fire station had a captain and a lieutenant and there was much rivalry between the firemen as to who got to the fire first with the most buckets, ladders, and axes…The volunteer firemen got paid $1 for reporting to a fire alarm and the captain was the bookkeeper…His job was to check the arrival of each volunteer on the job…Some volunteers couldn’t get away from their job at eh mill in day time but reported at night…If it took more than an hour to put out the fire, the firemen got extra pay.
Dr. O. B. Dunn hung out his shingle as an eye specialist on May 20, 1876…Perhaps many senior citizens recall their parents visiting his office at Fourth and Railroad…The doctor was well known by doctors in Columbus and Cincinnati who told Ironton patients who visited their office “that Ironton had a good eye doctor.”
May 21, 1855, Mayor E. P. Gillen who was elected on the laboring man’s ticket in April fined a West Ironton man $1 and costs for taking a bath in a wash tub in his own backyard before sundown…The name of the citizen was not printed but the editor said “His arrest will perhaps prevent others from such terrors”…The next item read “Mike Feeley, faced mayor Gillen and declares “His honor” wasn’t elected to help the laboring man” and that seems to be a hint to the identity of the backyard bather.
On May 22, 1851, the first city board of education was elected in the new town which was just two years old…The vote to adopt the state school code was 31 to 1 in favor of a school board…Members elected were John Campbell, John Peters, James Kelley, W. D. Kelly, S. R. Bush, and Thomas Murdock…The first school examiners were Dr. Caleb Briggs, Neal McNeal, and Dr. J. P. Bing…Charles Kingsbury was the first principal…The first two teachers were Wm. Ward and Miss E. Wait…Mr. Kingsbury’s salary was $600 annually…The school was on the corner at Fourth and Center with an enrollment of over 50.
Ninety-four years ago today, the first funeral was held at Woodland, the most beautiful cemetery in Southern Ohio, and this is a good place to sine die the column.
Written by Charles Collett
Huntington Newspaper – no date given
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